The Leaf Certified brand dates all the way back to the 1999 football season, but it wasn't until the word Materials was added in 2001 that the set really gained its identity. Tradition looks like it will be upheld in 2007, as the latest edition once again packs material swatch rookie cards, additional memorabilia cards and creative Mirror parallels into one tidy package.
Each pack of 2007 Leaf Certified Materials Football holds five cards, with 10 packs per hobby box. Expect to find four memorabilia or autographed cards per box on average.
Base Cards
NFL veterans take their bows on the first 150 cards of the Leaf Certified base set. An action photo on a white background is flanked by gray and brown stripes that appear to have the texture of a football. Silver foil makes an appearance at the very bottom of the stripes, and it works well as an accent instead of the whole show - it's shiny but not distracting.
The next 50 cards are New Generation rookie cards, which utilize a similar design and are numbered to 1499. An additional 34 rookies - including top names like JaMarcus Russell, Brady Quinn and Calvin Johnson - appear on Freshman Fabric rookie cards, which incorporate a swatch of event-worn jersey into the center of the card. The base level for these cards is numbered to 1499, though they have some cool parallels we'll get to in the next section.
Twenty NFL legends finish off the base set on cards called Immortals. A lofty name like that deserves something a little extra, and Donruss obliges by including game-worn swatches and numbering the cards to 75 or less. The checklist includes Jim Thorpe, Sammy Baugh and Otto Graham.
It all adds up to a fun and varied base set. My sample box contained 46 of the 150 commons, one New Generation rookie (Charles Johnson) and a Garrett Wolfe Freshman Fabric rookie.
Mirror Parallels
All of the base cards have five levels of Mirror parallels (Red, Blue, Gold, Emerald and Black), and some of them are simply cards with lower numbering and a different color of foil. But Donruss also uses them to give the commons and New Generation cards autograph and memorabilia versions, as well as prime material variations for the Immortals.
As in seasons past, the best of the Mirror cards are the Freshman Fabric parallels. Different levels use three or four different types of material swatches, and every level except for Red also features an autograph.
Two Mirror card turned up in the About.com review box: a regular Red version of Steve Smith, numbered to 100, and a blue Freshman Fabric variation for Rams running back Brian Leonard. The Leonard card is numbered to 50 and features jersey, football and helmet swatches along with an autographed sticker.
Insert Cards
Two staples of the Leaf Certified insert lineup return in the form of Certified Skills and Certified Potential. The former spotlights 20 established stars, while the latter focuses on 15 young players on the rise. Both sets have base levels numbered to 1000, along with the full array of Mirror parallels and memorabilia versions.
A newer addition is Gold Team, a small set of ten top NFL performers on cards numbered to 500. And yes, there are Mirror and material parallels for these cards as well.
I found one Certified Skills and one Certified Potential card in my review box, plus a Certified Potential Materials card of Joseph Addai with a blue game-worn jersey swatch numbered to 250.
Memorabilia Cards
Even with the numerous game-worn parallels and the Freshman Fabric rookies, Leaf Certified still has a few more memorabilia cards to offer. The largest set by far is Fabric of the Game, which clocks in at a whopping 150 cards and includes 105 current players and 45 past greats. That means you could find anyone from Mike Bell to Walter Payton, plus combo, prime swatch and college jersey versions.
A new twist is offered on Souvenir Stamps cards, which pair game-worn swatches with various vintage football-related postage stamps. There are also autograph and stamp combos and cards that combine all three elements.
My sample box produced a Fabric of the Game Team Logo card of Steve McNair numbered to 25. The die-cut for the patch swatch is cut in the shape of the Ravens logo, though the actual jersey piece is all white.
It's worth noting that packs of Certified Materials that contain any kind of memorabilia card actually contain an extra card, as the swatch cards are extra thick and take the place of the decoy cards found in other packs. It's a small but nice touch and the complete opposite of many current products.